Kieran Shannon: Game recognising game - when Prince met Muhammad Ali

Did you realise how big sport was in musical genius Prince's life? 

Muhammad Ali, center, leaving the Armed Forces Induction Center in Houston, with his entourage, after refusing to be drafted. Picture: Associated Press

Sightseeing was not something the artist known as Prince was into, for all the touring he did before he left this world five years ago this week, but one afternoon in 2007, out of obligation to his childhood hero, he made an exception: to visit a greasy old cemetery in Las Vegas where Sonny Liston had been buried.

Ten years earlier Muhammad Ali’s people, supporting a World Healing project, had reached out to Prince’s camp upon learning that an MTV crew would be at the launch in Washington. Ali’s people had considered it a total long shot that someone as guarded and as busy as Prince would travel on his own dime at such short notice but within 48 hours Prince had flown in from Minneapolis: Ali’s people had him at “Muhammad wants you…”